Policy

Further ReadingMassive EU data protection overhaul finally approvedGoogle has been fined €50 million (~$57 million) by French regulators, the first major penalty under a sweeping new European Union privacy law known as GDPR, which took effect last year. According to the French government agency, known by the acronym CNIL, Google is still in breach of the law. CNIL explained that Google had violated two provisions of the law: first by not making its data-collection policies easily accessible enough and second by not obtaining sufficient and specific user consent for ad personalization across each of Google’s numerous services, including YouTube, Google Maps, and more. "It is not a one-off, time-limited, infringement," the agency said Monday. The two complaints were filed jointly on the day the law went into effect by the French digital advocacy group La Quadrature du Net and the group Noyb.eu, a watchdog organization started by Max Schrems. The young Austrian privacy … [Read more...] about Google must pay €50 million for GDPR violations, France says

Fox News has barred a TV monitoring service from recording its broadcasts and allowing customers to search for and play back relevant segments. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the monitoring service TVEyes reached a settlement with Fox after a five-year-long legal battle requiring it to permanently stop distributing the network’s shows. TVEyes hasn’t been distributing Fox since March, after receiving an injunction. TVEyes may not be well known, but it and similar companies perform an important service: allowing journalists to keep tabs on the dozens of hours of content broadcast on news channels each day. That’s particularly important when it comes to Fox News — a channel known for scare tactics, slanted coverage, and being watched by President Donald Trump. In addition to journalists, the service is used by the White House, members of Congress, and the Department of Defense, according to the Reporter, which has been tracking the lawsuit for the past five … [Read more...] about Fox News stops TV recording service that let journalists search for clips

Further ReadingMassive EU data protection overhaul finally approvedGoogle has been fined €50 million (~$57 million) by French regulators, the first major penalty under a sweeping new European Union privacy law known as GDPR, which took effect last year. According to the French government agency, known by the acronym CNIL, Google is still in breach of the law. CNIL explained that Google had violated two provisions of the law: first by not making its data-collection policies easily accessible enough and second by not obtaining sufficient and specific user consent for ad personalization across each of Google’s numerous services, including YouTube, Google Maps, and more. "It is not a one-off, time-limited, infringement," the agency said Monday. The two complaints were filed jointly on the day the law went into effect by the French digital advocacy group La Quadrature du Net and the group Noyb.eu, a watchdog organization started by Max Schrems. The young Austrian privacy … [Read more...] about Google fined $57M after France finds violations of new EU privacy law

GoFundMe has set up a campaign to help federal workers affected by the longest government shutdown in US history, and it’s raised over $90,000 from over 1,000 people in just two days. The fund, which was announced by GoFundMe’s CEO Rob Solomon, was started with an initial donation of $10,000 from New Age guru Deepak Chopra, which was then matched with a donation from GoFundMe itself. Donations towards the fundraiser will be distributed to a number of different nonprofit organisations working to help the approximately 800,000 workers affected by the shutdown. The World Central Kitchen in Washington DC, which is currently providing free meals to federal workers, is one such organization, and the National Diaper Bank Network is another. The crowdfunding platform said that it intends to distribute the funds raised to nonprofits who will provide assistance in the form of food, counseling, and housing. GoFundMe said it will release a full list of the nonprofit organizations in … [Read more...] about GoFundMe launches fundraiser for workers affected by government shutdown

If there's one person outside of government who has stood against Facebook's crashing wave, it's Ashkan Soltani. Late last year, the independent privacy researcher was suddenly called to speak before the UK Parliament about Facebook's privacy practices, simply because he happened to be in London and, in his own words, "was just a dick on Twitter." Soltani wasn't just some random Internet troll: he understood the company's technical practices in a way that few did, and better yet, he could explain them in a way that most civilians would understand. testimony before a US Senate subcommittee, where he unequivocally said: "No other single company has done more to erode consumer privacy than Facebook." Earlier in 2018, Soltani also helped author the new California Consumer Privacy Act, which was signed into law last June, just a few years after being named as the chief technologist at the Federal Trade Commission. Years ago, the Californian began his career researching undeletable browser … [Read more...] about Why Silicon Valley’s “growth at any cost” is the new “unsafe at any speed”